Presidents Day — What Is It?
Introducing America’s most meaningless holiday
Call me old-fashioned but I believe names mean something. Or at least they should. This commonsense hermeneutical standard includes holidays. Or at least it should.
If the purpose of a holiday is to get the American people to pause and reflect on a noteworthy and meaningful person, group, event, or accomplishment, then…
You want to make the meaning of the holiday as clear as possible, as quickly as possible — ideally in the name of the holiday itself!
Take New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day — these holidays are clear. You know what they’re about just by their titles.
Granted, not all of our holidays are immediately clear by their names. And some of our holidays generate a fair amount of controversy. We’ll save all that for another article. But…
None of our holidays is as incoherent, confusing, and inane as today’s holiday… Presidents Day.
Today’s holiday is spelled different ways:
- President’s Day
- Presidents’ Day
- Presidents Day
Pick whichever one you want. I’m going with Presidents Day for this article.
Presidents Day is the name used by most Americans, many (probably most) businesses and organizations, and several states for the holiday that now falls on the third Monday in February.
The U.S. federal government still recognizes this holiday by its official and original title: George Washington’s Birthday — or George Washington’s Birthday (observed).
In 1879, Congress designated George Washington’s birthday as a national holiday — the holiday falling on Washington’s actual birthday: February 22 according to the Gregorian Calendar). This was the first federal holiday honoring an individual American.
If you’re going to honor a specific person with a holiday, why not honor the man widely regarded as the father of your country, right?
I mean, is George Washington not worth celebrating?
Washington’s Birthday holiday all went appropriately, smoothly, and beautifully until the 1950s.
Several of our elected officials got the bright idea to rename the holiday to “Presidents Day” to include Abraham Lincoln. This proposal, however, was never approved — not by Congress anyway.
Then, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, aiming to provide workers with more three-day weekends. This act moved the observance of Washington’s Birthday from February 22nd to the third Monday in February.
Once Washington’s holiday was no longer tied to his actual birthday, it provided the opening for the culture to rename the holiday to “Presidents Day.” Retail sales and television ads began using the term “Presidents Day” and it spread from there. Indeed, I remember as a kid in elementary school in the 1970s seeing “Presidents Day” with pictures of Washington and Lincoln.
Technically, the original intent behind the “Presidents Day” name was to include Abraham Lincoln in the festivities. It was to honor both men: Washington and Lincoln.
There are some problems with this, of course. For one, we don’t just honor George Washington for what he did as a president. Washington’s contributions as a general were just as significant — perhaps more so. Arguably, we could have “Generals Day” instead of “Presidents Day,” though that would leave out Lincoln — since, in his case, we’re exclusively looking at his presidency.
This isn’t the biggest problem, though. The biggest is…
A holiday named “Presidents Day” suggests, by its name, that its purpose is to honor all of our presidents.
You can’t get around this! Indeed, many Americans are doing just that!
Let’s be clear…
Not all of America’s presidents deserve a holiday!
Those of you on the left, do you think Donald Trump deserves a holiday? How about George W. Bush? or Richard Nixon?
Those of you on the right, do you wish to include Joe Biden and Barack Obama in your holiday recognition?
Guess what? They are included in all that the name of the holiday implies.
So are William Henry Harrison (who served a month), John Tyler (who later served in the Confederate Congress), James Buchanan (one of the most ineffectual and inept presidents in history), and…I could go on!
It’s time to…
Stop this nonsense!
I know “Presidents Day” easily rolls off the tongue. Great, I have a solution. Make January 20 “Presidents Day” and the years in which we have an actual presidential inauguration, make it a holiday.
But every year, on January 20, we can (as Americans) pause and reflect on the legacies of all our nation’s presidents.
How ‘bout it?
This keeps “Presidents Day” in the national vocabulary and as part of our cultural zeitgeist. But it divorces it from Washington’s birthday.
“But…but…but…what about Lincoln?”
Give Lincoln a holiday too.
“But…that’s two holidays in February!”
We can have two holidays close together in February. We get that with Christmas and New Year’s, do we not?
However, if Congres and the state legislatures are feeling “Grinchy” and are short on holiday rations, then make it “Washington-Lincoln Day.” Yeah, it’s not as easy to say as “Presidents Day,” but at least “Washington-Lincoln Day” means something!
I know it won’t happen. I know we’re essentially stuck with “Presidents Day” for the foreseeable future, but…
I really do wish Americans would consider what we’ve lost here.
The original intent behind the February holiday was to honor one man, and his name is George Washington. To borrow a phrase from Abraham Lincoln, this was “altogether fitting and proper.”
Now, Washington has to share his day with not only Lincoln but (effectively) with every other American president too. The holiday is now diluted to the point of confusion and frankly worthlessness.
If all we care about is getting a 3-day weekend in February, then just call it that — the “February 3-Day Weekend” or call the third Monday in February “The February Free-From-Work-and-School Day.” At least we’d be more accurate with what most Americans care about and more honest with our intentions.
As it is, Presidents Day is the stupidest holiday of the year.
